Life Links 12/28/10

Markai Durham, who will be featured tonight on MTV's No Easy Decision special on abortion, posted a question regarding abortion on her Facebook page at the end of October. One comment by Markai (on November 10 at 8:31 a.m.) shows she is depressingly ignorant about fetal development.

Telisia- This Is A Fault That Many People Have. Its Not A Baby At All Until I Think You 3rd Trimester (I Could Be Mistaken) Its Only A Fetus Which Means Its Only A GROUP OF CELLS TRYING TO FORM INTO SOMEONE.

As a likely result of Planned Parenthood's new policy to force all affiliates to provide abortions, Planned Parenthood of Southwest Oregon has just started offering RU-486 abortions. This has caused a Catholic charity in the area to sever ties with the United Way donations since the local United Way gives money to Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood of Southwest Oregon decided to provide the abortion pills at its Eugene and Ashland clinics because agency leaders could see that abortion would eventually be unavailable as doctors who perform surgical abortions near retirement, said Cynthia Pappas, CEO of Planned Parenthood.

The Washington Post has a long article on prolife legislation (focusing primarily on Nebraska's fetal pain law) which could test what abortion restrictions the Supreme Court will accept and how Gonzales v. Carhart has encouraged prolifers to continue in efforts to chip away at Roe v. Wade.

Some abortion rights supporters say privately that a challenge might come if another state adopts Nebraska's model, as seems likely. Those who were active in passing the law seem almost disappointed that the challenge has not arrived yet.

"We can't say with any certainty that this is going to meet constitutional muster," said Nebraska Right to Life Executive Director Julie Schmit-Albin. "But you know what, from our perspective, if we aren't bucking up against Roe, we're not doing our job.

"So we did our job in Nebraska and now it's time for the other states to do their job."

Authorities in Thailand continue to crack down on illegal abortion clinics.

The Soi Ramkhamhaeng 97 clinic, together with Ms Noknoi, faces three charges: opening illegal clinics, which carries a three-year jail sentence; providing medical services without licences (three-year jail term), and carrying out illegal abortions (two-year jail term).